HAPPINESS

Option #2

This is my interpretation of the poem of Emily Dickinson “Tell All the Truth, But Tell It Slant”

“Tell all the Truth but tell it slant- “

I think Emily might have meant that while saying the truth, one should not be straightforward while doing that.  It should be said  carefully.

“Success in Circuit lies”

This could mean that telling the truth can go smoothly and successfully through “circuit lies” where they are simply additional stories around the main true story. Those extra words surround the truth to ease the truth into one’s heart. Or the author intended to say that success lies in the “Circuit” Emily capitalized some words which is very unique and seems to me, she wanted to emphasize certain words to make us pay attention to them. Circuit then might represent the course or the path that we take in order to tell the truth to somebody.

“Too bright for our infirm Delight”

When we are having good time, we are happy and delighted; this happy state can be spoiled sometimes by raw truth, the truth that hurts. That’s why I think Emily meant that our happiness is infirm. It is week in a sense that it will always break under some realization of reality. And reality is usually not what we would like it to be. Therefore the truth is” too bright.”

“The Truth’s superb surprise”

In every situation, there is always one truth. No one can change the truth. It is like there is only one version of the story. Therefore the truth is the reality and it is superior and superb. Also it catches by surprise.

“As Lightning to the Children eased”

I believe this verse is a continuation of the previous one. As mentioned before, the truth can be shocking and here it is compared to how lightning can be surprising for kids.

“With explanation kind”

The fact that truth can be shocking is that it can be eased by kind explanation. If there is the truth that could sweep you off your feet, would you wanted it to be said to you bluntly, or would you like it to be delivered to you in a nice and polite way? There are definitely people who think they want the straight truth said right into their faces. I think it depends on the situation. I think Emily talks about the truth that is sad, uncomfortable to be heard or tragic for example. That is why an explanation is like an aid for the listener.

“The Truth must dazzle gradually

Or every man be blind-“

The truth has to be given little by little, cautiously; otherwise it will be overwhelming.

Like it was said before the truth is so “bright”, that if we would be confronted by it suddenly it would “blind” us. It is compared to the moment when we look directly at sunlight. We don’t like to do that so we make a shadow using our hand or we wear sunglasses.

I love this poem. It is beautifully written and it goes swiftly from one verse to the other with a little rhyme at the end. It is in a form of advice. Although Emily uses a word “must”, overall the advice is not given to us in a dominant way. She simply states her opinion and teaches us what precautions should be taken while telling the truth.

Exploring the poem side of me.

this race that creates wonderful music

intertwining the chello and the violin

this race that paints dreams and aspirations

of walking on the moon or being a doctor

this race that blends the cultures of the world

from the Congo to Brazil to America

this race that has achieved great heights

from splitting the nucleus to curing diseases

this race that has done much

has yet done nothing

what about the hungry children in Darfur?

why do they starve?

what about female  infanticide?

Why boys over girls?

what about discrimination

of race, color, ethnicity,  of disfigurement?

what about…..

I read all the other poems listed on the syllabus and I am not much of writing poetry in my free time, let alone rhyming it. I have having trouble translating one of the given poems or writing like the poets, so I created my own poem on happiness. I don’t even know if you can call it a poem. But hopefully someone out there likes it for what it is: few simple words 🙂

stop waiting!

no more! no more!

until you finish college

until you have the job

until you retire

until you pay off the mortgage

until you get married

until you have children

until you find true love

until you get that promotion

until all the seasons pass you by

until you get the PHD

until you have the perfect house

until you go Green

until you go to the gym

until you travel to Europe

stop waiting

live in the moment

be happy

the greatest emotion

of all

making us feel good

a smile crossing our face

a warm fuzzy feeling

at peace

at rest

After reading “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by Wordsworth, I felt that the poet was reminiscing in his memories. His experience with the daffodils served as his escape from the world; somewhere he could go when he had nothing to do or was in a pensive mood. Likewise, I wrote a poem where I speak about my escape. Enjoy!

Nowhere

I stood on the mountaintop

The floor embedded with snow

Frozen rain started to drop

With the setting sun’s vibrant glow

My eyes scanned the valleys and hills

As I welcomed the winter chills

Trees covered the hills from side to side

Bare and covered in white

They looked like a giant ocean tide

Fighting nature with their might

The beauty left me speechless

A moment that was ceaseless

I scooped up a pile of white bliss

As my heart filled with glee

This place I would truly miss

Because this was where I was happy

Away from burdens of so called duty

No worries, no work, just pure beauty

In dreams this place would come

When worried or tired of life

All alone I would start to hum

The rhythm of the wind and trees strife

And then my heart would say “All is well”

“In your mind; let the peace dwell”

Use theme from “Tell All the Truth, But Tell It Slant” by Emily Dickinson

Grandpa

Grandpa smokes another cigarette, typical

This is his fourth one and it’s only 10 in the morning

He is working himself out of the nightmares

That he has every night

Ever since he came back from the Dien Bien Phu battle

Grandpa smokes another cigarette

I have never killed a man, he said

But I saw enough deaths that I imagine their bodies as mine

I have never killed a man, he repeated

But my platoon lost half of its brothers by the end of that horrid night

Grandpa smokes another cigarette

He pauses and he puts his face into his hands

First time I saw my grandpa cries

Silence

Awkward, heartbreaking silence

Grandpa no longer has the strength to tell me another secret

But he knows I won’t mind

Grandpa takes out another cigarette

Time doesn’t erase anything, he says

Time is as selfish as I am: it won’ forgive and will never forget

Time is the enemy that I aimed my 47 at

I shoot

And shoot

And shoot

Yet it never dies.

Grandpa takes the last hit of his cigarette

My granddaughter, please don’t be angry at the soldiers

Who lost their lives and that of others

to fulfill a mission that dictated their existence,

and that of their husbands, their wives, and their children

Cháu gái của tôi, please don’t judge another soldier

We are only the left over of the world latest predicament.

My grandpa puts down his cigarette

This would not be his last one of the day.

Stanza 1: “How happy he, who free from care”

The writer says that a man who owns his own farm is the happiest man because he can “breathe his native air.” In other words, he works for something that is his and doesn’t have to worry about owing anything to anyone else. What comes out of this land is the fruit of his labor. This part of the poem sounds idealistic and serene.

Stanza 2: “Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread”

The writer continues to describe the farmer’s life in more detail. From this farm land he gets milk; from the grains that grow in the field he can make his own bread; from the wool of his sheep he can make his own clothing; the shade from the trees protect him from the sun in the summer, and in the winter the wood from the trees will warm his home.

The writer is basically stating that owning your own farm will practically give you all you need to live (the farmer can totally rely on his farm for survival). Though this may sound like a simple life, the farmer is enamored with what nature provides for him.

Stanza 3: “Blest, who can unconcernedly find”

The writer says that the farmer’s life is blessed. His days go by very quickly because the farmer has “health of body” and “peace of mind.” Working in his farm gives him such pleasure and gives comfort to the farmer. To the farmer, there’s no better place than his farm.

Stanza 4: “Sound sleep by night; study and ease”

At night the farmer “sleeps soundly.” Because he has freedom from the demands of his work, he has time to study. His days go by without any worries so he is able to enjoy hours of “recreation.”

In this part of the poem, the writer again paints a serene environment; therefore the farmer has an ideal life.

Stanza 5: “Thus let me live, unheard, unknown”

In this final stanza, the farmer wants to live “unheard, unknown.” He doesn’t want to know people or to be known by others. The farmer is perfectly content living alone because the farm has given him all the happiness he’s needed; thus, no one will mourn for him when he dies. He just wants to leave this world and not be remembered. He doesn’t even want his name engraved on a tombstone.

My Comments:

The writer of this poem writes as though it’s ideal just to live for yourself (live in solitude). We don’t ever get to hear about the hard labor that’s involved in maintaining a farm or the seasonal hardships; which is probably incredibly hard especially if you’re doing it all alone. He describes that you only need land to provide all that you need for survival. There’s no need to surround yourself with people or to live for anyone but yourself. Though the farmer’s life is serene and has no complications, it’s a lonely existence. When you die there won’t be a trace that you ever lived. No one will have fond or bad memories of you. Overall, this poem is romanticized and not at all realistic in nature.

Dictionary dot com defines tragedy as , ‘a tragedy is a drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow.Especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw,moral weakness or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances’.I do consider the story of Antigone to be a tragedy because the main character is brought to extreme sorrow due to a tragic flaw.The main characters in this story are Antigone and Creon but Creon is the one who is brought to extreme sorrow due to tragic flaws.I believe Creon is the tragic hero because he is the one character in the story with tragic flaws.Creon’s tragic flaws are being prideful,indecisive and confident.He actually is nervous but tries to cover it up by appearing and sounding confident at times but actually isn’t confident.It was obvious that Creon was nervous when dealing with Antigone and what to do,he was unsure of himself even though he wanted to kill Antigone and ends up doing so,Creon had a hard time with what to do with Antigone.He also is afraid of how to use his power because he was forced to be in a role of authority.Even though Creon appears as the ‘bad guy’ or the antagonist we still show sympathy for him.Antigone is a murderer and Creon should be upset.Creon lost everything that was really close to him.

As you all know, I am quite fascinated by the recent art installation in and around Madison Square Park–Event Horizon by Anthony Gormley. The installation is “public art”–naked bodies that are supposed to resemble the artist (self-portraits in a way, I guess). There are “thirty-one life-size body forms of the artist cast in iron and fiberglass will inhabit the pathways and sidewalks of historic Madison Square Park, as well as the rooftops of the many architectural treasures that populate New York’s vibrant Flatiron District.”

How many of you have noticed these bodies? How many of you have stopped and engaged with them? What do you think of this kind of art exhibit?

And, what does this have to do with “happiness”? Although I am not sure if this is what the artist intended, but when I walk to Baruch, these new “friends” make me happy. I like that they disrupt my line of vision and I like how I feel surrounded by them–whether I am looking down, straight ahead, or up. Gormley states, “the gaze is the principle dynamic of the work; the idea of looking and finding, or looking and seeking, and in the process perhaps re-assessing your own position in the world. So in encountering these peripheral things, perhaps one becomes aware of one’s status of embedment.”

What do you think he means by this? Is he sucessful? How can a bronze statue cause a viewer to “re-assess” his/her position in the world?

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/lqT_dPApj9U" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

I find this video to be very interesting.  Other than the fact that Coca Cola is advertising its soda, I feel that the advertisement is also sending a very strong and important message.  The message is that happiness can be derived from the simplest things and in this case it can be derived from a weird vending machine.  Furthermore, Coca Cola’s main slogan runs along the lines of “Coca Cola spread the happiness.”  I personally feel that this is a very important and powerful statement.  Can we really reduce happiness to a bottle of soda?  I think that this statement can be pushed further by saying that we, as individuals, tend to over-complicate happiness and sometimes forget the simple things that make us feel good.  For example, in the commercial the act of giving to others really did spread joy.  I strongly agree with this statement and I am glad that it is being put out there because we must be reminded that the simple things are just as important as everything else.  People tend to forget these things and as a result end up living their lives with their heads in the clouds and turn out having a rude awakening.  If we are not reminded to enjoy the simple things then we may run the risk of spending our lives reaching for the stars while walking passed the roses.

This is about neither of the two options, but instead about a separate point altogether.  Essentially, the rather frequent and strong reliance on death/dying in the play. I’ve recently suffered such a tragedy very close to me and I read the play with a new perspective. I want others to think about how serious death is… Death of a stranger, a friend, or a family member, especially of a family member, it is a reason that your life may change a little or a lot. The death may be expected or not, the unexpected being worse I believe. My point is that death is a very serious thing, and should be given thought as something more than a bad/good guy getting shot/stabbed, blah blah blah… Death is what happens to the people closest to you and yourself. Children often bury their parents, and sometimes parents bury their children. Picture hearing the news that a grandmother has died, surely it will be much more devastating than when skimming over the death of Antigone, Eurydice and Haemon. Sophacles creates pure carnage, as if death is such a meaningless thing at the conclusion. I detest that notion, there is no emphasis on feelings there, and I picture the play — in a 3 minute sequence, people just stabbing themselves left and right… This does not give the viewer/reader to develop the correct feelings towards the characters he has gotten to know so well. Sure, the story is fiction, but it does not eliminate the fact that people have died by suicide in similar and much, much worse circumstances.

Sorry for the style of writing, I wanted to publish this ASAP and hence did not have a chance to edit it thoroughly.

Miro